and no one will ever know
by Ink Reservoir
Summary: At first, Neji can't understand why the meeting is taking so long. The answer for how to punish him should be obvious; branch house Hyuuga are supposed to protect the main house members, not put them in comas.


"Did you hear?" Neji hears, the fifteenth loud, frantic whisper to cut through his thoughts this morning. "The heiress is going to be participating in the Chuunin Exams!"

Neji grits his teeth as a Hyuuga branch member approaches him, attempting to distract from his actions with the act of mopping like this isn't the compound where everyone can see everything. Neji can't remember this relative's name, but it doesn't matter here. The slightly older man bends his knees and puts his face close to Neji's hair.

"I know you don't like it, but…" the relative starts, pole of the mop pressing into Neji's shoulder as Neji struggles to maintain a position that suggests the man is invisible to him. "No matter what happens, if you're paired with the heiress, you must throw the match."

Neji keeps silent, refusing to spare any words or draw attention to himself for this person. He'd already tried that with other members of the branch house who'd felt the need to do this in the last few days, and it did nothing to stop more and more from coming to bestow their worthless advice upon him.

After a few moments, the man finally pulls back, pushing his weight into wiping the wooden floor around Neji's feet. Neji turns away, padding back to his original destination of the dojos. Although Neji's eyes can't see into the one reserved for the main branch, not even special protective jutsu could protect the main house's privacy when the sliding door barrels into the wall at the end of its track, and Hiashi Hyuuga stamps out. Behind him, Hinata Hyuuga stands, shoulders rounded to huddle into herself. Her branch member sparring opponent heaves heavy breaths, but as far as Neji can tell without activating his Byakugan, bears no actual wounds. Hiashi passes by Neji, his hand twitching just barely as though about to curl into a fist.

Neji was the only person on his team who was required to obtain a third signature on his forms to enter the exam. The others only needed Gai's and their own, but Hiashi was the one to complete the form for Neji, moving the brush across the page without a word. Between all the racket his branch peers stir up over the Exams, Neji wonders if they know the clan head hasn't spoken a word to him.

 _She won't make it to the final stage anyway,_ Neji thinks, the only time during the Exams where being paired with her against his own wishes would ever be a problem. She couldn't even bring herself to land a hand on a sparring opponent while surrounded by observers with medical know-how, much less in a tournament where genin are encouraged to kill. For all Neji knows, she could forfeit or be disqualified tomorrow morning when they step foot into the building where the first test will occur, and even if she somehow _does_ carry herself through or ride on the shoulders of her teammates into the final stage, the chances of she and Neji being paired up against one another are minuscule at _best_. Neji touches the door of his bedroom, then turns his head as a presence appears in his field of vision and then like a flash of lightning is at his side, a hand grasping firmly onto Neji's arm.

"Wh—" Neji gasps, startled a step back as sharp fingernails dig into his skin, and he realizes the person holding him is Tokuma, another branch member about five or six years his senior. Neji's heart races as he rolls his shoulders back, and regains his footing.

"Listen," Tokuma mutters gruffly, and Neji doesn't need to face him to see his expression, teeth bared, eyes filled with such intensity for a moment it's like he's using the Byakugan.

Neji's lips thin. This again.

"I'm only going to say this once." The pain of his distant cousin's fingernails is unbearable, but between the two of them Tokuma is stronger. "Do what you will if you're up against her, but—"

Neji's eyes widen. Tokuma pauses, and though they are alone in this part of the bedchambers, he drops his voice to a murmur so quiet Neji has to strain to hear. "But don't seriously hurt her, and no matter what, _you_ _can't kill her._ Do you understand?"

Neji's teeth clench, and he rips his arm out of Tokuma's grasp, beads of blood forming a trail on his previously unmarred skin as he slams open the door. "Goodnight, Tokuma," he snarls.

Tokuma stands, then slowly turns toward his own chambers. "Goodnight."

Neji learns that Hinata's team was one of the first to return from the Forest of Death from her teammate, boasting loudly amidst the overall fuss the survivors make as they pour into the meeting room. Perhaps it's not so surprising, given that until now, all of the tests have been based on the premise of team participation, and the Aburame clan is renowned for their unique jutsu and prowess. Obviously, renown doesn't always make rumours true about _everyone_ in a clan, but the tall boy with the dark glasses seems competent enough to make Neji believe in the possibility. The Hokage gains control over the situation and Neji realizes that despite the noise most people in the room look worn out. After a long spiel that tells Neji far too many people in this room are naive for not having realized the Chuunin Exams are just one more way powerful people are exploiting them, it's announced that before the tournaments there will be a preliminary stage with individual matches.

It's either fortunate or unfortunate for the Main House that their heiress won't even get a chance to fight in front of any significant figures. She hems and haws pathetically throughout every match, shivering like she's cold in her enormous sweater and poking her fingers together. He doesn't want to look at her, but his visual abilities keep him from being able to look away, and he sighs, staring at the fights happening below and thinking that it certainly _is_ possible for a person to be born with too much talent.

Then his name appears on the screen.

And so does hers.

The mumbles are hushed at first, hushed like they are in the Hyuuga compound between branch members and with himself, but as the chatter spreads they quickly amalgamate into a chorus, loud and indistinguishable the way only voices in a crowd can be indistinguishable, when there are so many individuals talking at once that they all seem to speak as one. Neji descends the steps, and this is unfortunate, this is _ridiculously_ unfortunate, Gaara of the Sand Village with all the rumours surrounding him standing with his face pallid on the balcony across the room, Sasuke Uchiha who won a match using a move he learned from Neji's own teammate in five days recovering in the hospital to be ready in time for the tournament, Rock Lee behind him, prepared to advance, prepared to continue and to test his hand, and even Tenten who's lost already had the chance to fight and lose on her own terms. _Unfortunate_ doesn't even begin to describe this, that Neji would be paired against the one person he can't touch, to be paired against her before anyone else in this Village can even see how skilled he is, can see that his talent being so limited for the rest of his life is a _waste_ — no, this is fate. Destiny ordained, from the moment of his father's birth to Neji's feet now walking into the battle area to meet his timid cousin. To forfeit the match here and now and perhaps take it as a gentle reminder that those with hubris can only be proven fools when faced with forces greater than they are.

And Hinata, Hinata who can see him _anyway_ , Hinata who has _no choice_ but to look at her cousin whether she wants to or not, can't even meet his eyes for the audience's sake.

At the front of the room, the Hokage stands, silent, indifferent to the nonchalance with which his Village's _computer_ has derailed the next half a year of Neji's life. Silent… and with an intense gaze fixed on Neji, a patient and anxious gaze, waiting to see what he will do.

 _They want_ _me to fight her,_ Neji realizes, fluorescent lights buzzing and flickering slightly overhead. The audience watches expectantly, and though this whole time Neji could see them, it is only now that with significance it occurs to him that he and Hinata are the only Hyuuga in the room. She, the heiress of the clan, and he, the most promising prodigy of their age. They want him to fight her, and they want him to _hurt_ her, and on this stage— and perhaps for the only time in the rest of his life— he is being held to the rules of the Village, not the tyrannical rules of the Hyuuga.

 _Don't seriously hurt her, and no matter what, you can't kill her._

Neji rolls his shoulders back, then speaks in an even voice the only kindness he intends to afford his cousin; "You should forfeit now."

The match ends with Hinata being carried out on a stretcher by the Leaf's medical team. The entire fight is a blur, nearly every Jounin in the Leaf, including his own sensei who _claims_ to disagree with Neji's perspective about fixed destinies, stepping in at the last moment to protect Hinata from him. Even the "no-rules" preliminary matches are willing to make exceptions for the main house, it seems, but Neji was wrong to think this Village would ever support him.

When the rest of the fights are over, Neji doesn't go home. He can't, not yet, not with Hinata in the hospital because of him. He doesn't know how bad the wounds he inflicted on her are, but according to Rock Lee the medical team doesn't know how long she'll have to be there. Ultimately, though, avoiding the compound is an exercise in futility. With over a hundred clan members in possession of the Byakugan, the Hyuuga hardly lack the resources to find him if they want to, and with the seal upon his forehead they wouldn't even need to do that much.

He traces the circles through the Village, almost sluggish, until the moon has dominated the sky for several hours and he realizes he'll have to collapse on a bench for the night if he doesn't get to a bed and sleep.

Nothing is waiting for him when he returns, and the next morning the branch house members refuse to speak with him. Tokuma is nowhere to be found, and the next afternoon when a meeting is called for all the clan's council to attend, Neji knows with certainty that he did the wrong thing.

For three days and two nights no one sees Neji's uncle or his grandfather, the rooms locked, soundproofed, and invisible to branch house members' Byakugan to ensure they have more privacy than anyone else in the entire ninja world could ever be afforded. At first, Neji can't understand why the meeting is taking so long. The answer for how to punish him should be obvious; branch house Hyuuga are supposed to protect the main house members, not _put them in comas_.

 _But_ , Neji thinks, sitting by his window watching the sun rise for his fourth morning without sleep since the meetings ended. _I did graduate as the top rookie of my year_.

"Everyone is talking about you," Tenten enthuses. "I saw one of the feudal lords from the Land of Water coming into the Village, and I overheard him say he's really excited to see you fight!"

 _So that's what happened_. If word got out that Neji was killed after injuring the heiress of the Hyuuga name, the clan's reputation as a force not to be toiled with would be tainted. Everyone would know of her weakness and unsuitability to lead the most notorious clan still alive since the Warring Clans Era, and his death would raise questions and bring the clan into scrutiny. The last thing the Hyuuga or the Leaf Village elites would need is for the Hyuuga clan's brutal practice to be made common knowledge.

No, instead they will wait, wait until all the international guests had gone home and no one is paying attention anymore. They will wait until after the tournament is over, and then they will activate his seal, like he saw his uncle do to his father before him, for the crime of looking with "murderous intent" at his daughter— the same daughter that Neji very nearly killed. He has defied his destiny for the very last time.

Tenten doesn't talk about what happened with Hinata. Gai might, if he weren't so distracted visiting Rock Lee in the hospital. Neji can't bring himself to deal with either of them now, and sparring in the dojos in the compound only reminds him that the people around him are plotting his fate. Left with no other choices when Tenten leaves earlier than him to go home, he practices with training dummies on the standard grounds, _far_ below his skill level but preferable to anything else.

His opponent for his first fight will be Naruto Uzumaki, and though Neji has no concerns about being able to beat him, others whose strengths will actually be good measuring sticks for his own will be present also. It doesn't matter anymore, but he still doesn't want to lose his last battles in front of such a large crowd. Practicing on this dummy is almost useless for the real thing, though, because it has no chakra points to speak of. He hits it all the same, and the mark on his forehead feels like it's burning, like his skull is ready to split anytime.

 _And no one will even know why_ , he thinks, rougher with the dummy than he would be even with a breathing human, since the Hyuuga fighting style has no cause for roughness.

His hand stops, millimetres away from the straw, and he sees his fingers shake.

 _Unless I tell them._

One of the most highly anticipated events in the ninja world— no, this Chuunin Exams is even more highly anticipated than others have been in _years_ , with the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan due to take part. The crowd is already enormous, the most infamous people in the ninja world taking up rooms in every inn in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. No doubt knowing the truth of how the main house has kept its secrets safe and its subordinates loyal would spark controversy with other Villages, and although many of the Leaf Village's administration knows and doesn't seem to care, the citizens of the Leaf and other clan heads surely would.

But besides that, it will mean that no matter what, the main house won't be able to kill him without confirming to the entire ninja world everything he says.

And perhaps then they'll finally be sorry.


End file.
